"Where Are They Now? Where did the Time Go?"

Yesterday like countless other sports fans around the country I planted myself in front of the tube to catch a little baseball. I’m not really quite sure why, other than the fact that it was game one of the World Series, I don’t particularly care for either team in the series. I would have rather seen Detroit and the Dodgers but that wasn’t to be. I suppose if I had to choose I’d have to go with Boston. I’ve always liked their logo and what about those Bean Town beards huh? I think the whole beard thing is pretty cool and I really like all the celebratory beard tugging. Yeah I’d have to go with Boston. Just the fact that they made it to the series this year after their last place finish last season is pretty remarkable. Go Red Sox!

Well the game got off to a great start and it didn’t take long for controversy to rear her ugly head. In the bottom of the first inning the second base umpire made the “mother of all bad calls.” I mean what the hell was he looking at anyway, certainly not the play! The ball bounced off the end of the second baseman’s glove and he proceeded to call the runner out! The guy must have gotten dust something in his eyes at just the wrong moment or perhaps he suffered a senior moment, who knows. Thank God the umpiring crew had the good sense to talk it over and reversed the call. Yeah that one call certainly made the case for instant replay in baseball. That was probably the most exciting part of Boston’s lopsided victory. They went on to win 8-1.

I watched until about the fourth inning before switching off. But even as I watched I found myself getting bored and was soon Goggling and searching the internet. And what you may be asking was I looking for? Well as I was reading through some Yahoo news articles I came across a “where are they now” piece on childhood stars from my youth and just had to check it out. Sad to say I was a little disappointed with the stars that were covered, I was only interested in a handful like the Beaver, Jerry Mathers, 65, who is a national spokesman for a Prescription Assistance Program and cute little “Kitten” from Father Knows Best, Laurin Chapin, 68, who went from cute to drug abuser, 3 divorces, jail, attempted suicide and finally redemption.She is currently an entertainment manager and occasionally performs in a live inter-active version of Father Knows Best for cruise lines, conventions, and other events. Poor Kitten should have listened to daddy, it seems Father really did know best.

Dennis and his buddy Tommy Where is Tommy today?

And what about Dennis the Menace star Jay North 6, he went from harassing poor old Mr. Wilson to being a counselor for a nonprofit organization that counsels child stars. Who would have thunk it? Then there’s 60 year old Eddie Munster, Butch Patrick, he went on to a life of small acting roles, drug abuse, and is now suffering from prostate cancer. There were others like Ron Howard, Gary Coleman and Danny Bonaduce, but the article was boring me so I never finished reading it. Besides I think we’re all familiar with the lives of those three.

Gilbert, Beaver and Whitey

Lumpy Eddie and Wally

So I sat there thinking about what a waste of space the article really was. I started thinking about some of the other characters from the old shows and wondered what became of them. People like Wally’s friends Lumpy Rutherford and Eddie Haskell or Beave’s buddies Whitey, Larry Mondello and Gilbert? What about Jeff from the Donna Reed Show? He’s got to be in his late 60’s now. What’s he doing? What about Dobie Gillis? What about Cubby and Moochie from the Mickey Mouse Club , Timmy from Lassie, the two boys from Flipper or Rusty from the Danny Thomas Show? And what about the evil little girl from the movie “The Bad Seed”, where is she now? Are they still out there somewhere? Are they even alive?

Yes I sat there for quite some time fondly remembering a lot of old shows and characters wondering what became of them and it was actually quite a pleasant experience at least for awhile. Soon I realized that it was all just a colossal waste of time. In the end all I managed to accomplish was to develop a mild case of melancholia as I realized just how much time has passed since I used to watch those weekly shows and just how old I’ve become. Soon my thought turned from “where are they now” to “where has all the time gone?” All in all quite a sobering experience.